The Prince's Marine Pavilion

West Facing Front of Marine Pavilion

Shortly after his twenty-first birthday on August
12, 1783, the Prince of Wales (1762-1830) formed a
connection that George III had prevented while the
Prince was a minor. The Prince of Wales had been carefully
kept away from the corrupting influence of George
III's younger brother Henry
Frederick. The Prince now went on an eleven-day
visit to his notorious uncle the Duke of Cumberland (1745-1790) at
the Duke's Brighton residence Grove House.
The pair threw themselves into a round of fun that
included hunting, racing, balls, and theatrical performances
all liberally anointed with spirits. Prinny and the
Duke of Cumberland became companions united by their
interest in horse
racing and rebellious self-indulgence. The Prince
rented a house in Brighton during the summers of 1784
and 1785. When he secretly married Mrs.
Fitzherbert, she was nominally installed at her
own house on the Steine. George and Maria began to
spend much of their time at Brighton. In October 1786,
Louis Weltje, the Prince's cook, took an option on
a farmhouse owned by Thomas Read Kemp. Weltje rented
the land to the Prince for a 1,000 pounds a year until
the Prince finally purchased the property in 1793.
Like many of the Prince's connections, Weltje, who
had purchased the property for 5,850 pounds, made
a considerable profit on his dealings with the Prince.

The Prince of Wales was at this time very friendly with the wealthy, charming, generous, and recklessly profligate
Louis Philippe II, the Duc d' Orleans
(1747-1793). The Duc d' Orleans, who was fifteen years older than the Prince of Wales, shared the Prince's fondness for
Brighton. He introduced the Prince to things Parisian such as scent, underclothing, fancy paper, and waistcoats, which
thoroughly entranced him. Under the spell of his new enthusiasm for French style, the Prince of Wales had architect
Henry Holland draw up plans for a French
Neoclassical building similar to one found in Volume VI of Neufforge's Receuil Elementaire d' Architecture. The building was already underway by the spring
of 1787.

The Prince was able to occupy his new villa when
he arrived from London on July 6th,
1787. The
Marine Pavilion had a great round central Grand
Saloon bracketed by half domes that measured 37 feet
by 48 feet. The round saloon was windowed all across
the garden front so that it acted as a huge semi-circular
bay. This bay was shaded by a semi-circular porch
supported by columns. The central dome was adjoined
on either side of the half domes by rectangular wings
each with two semi-circular bays facing east. The
southern wing was the original house, which now contained
an anteroom and a breakfast room on the ground floor.
The new northern wing housed an eating room and a
library. In front of these rooms was a long corridor
stretching the length of the house. On either end
of the corridor wings extended to the west forming
a forecourt. The south wing contained pages' rooms.
The north wing housed domestic quarters. In the center
of the court, a hall jutted from the building. A portico
made up of a pediment with an entablature all supported
by columns fronted the hall. A tunnel connected Mrs.
Fitzherbert's house to the Pavilion.

Plan

Artist Biagio
Rebecca (c1735-1808), who specialized in the imitation
of antique
bas-relief, painted the Grand Saloon. (Note
the very early use of a circular sofa called a "sociable"
in the center of the Grand Saloon in the print at
left showing the Grand Saloon at a later date redecorated
in a style reflecting Mogul India. Prinny always kept
abreast of the latest fashions.) The library was papered
in brilliant yellow. The eating room was in yellow
and maroon with a sky blue ceiling. The corridors
were French blue. The staircase walls were green with
gray and white ceilings. Most of the French neoclassical
style furniture for the Pavilion was supplied by English
craftsmen:
George Seddon, Carrington, and ThomasChippendale.
Frenchman Dominique
Daguerre, who popularizing the mounting of porcelain
plaques onto small versatile pieces of furniture,
did supply a few items amounting to over 14,000 pounds in purchases.

As was usual with the Prince,
the building was constantly altered. In 1795, curving
wings were added to the garden side of the house that
contained a new dining room with niches between columns
at either end. Discreetly placed water-closets were
also added at this time. By 1802, a new banquet room
and conservatory had been added to the Pavilion. Holland
also designed and built a specially fitted up confectionary
for the three confectioners the Prince kept on his
domestic staff.

In 1801, the Prince's interest in
Chinese
decoration was revived by a gift of some oriental
wallpaper. Redecorating of various corridors and rooms
followed ultimately leading to the John
Nash remodel of the exterior of the Pavilion in
the style
of India in 1815. The Prince's Marine Pavilion
exists as a shadow in the floor plan of the Brighton
Pavilion and in a few prints, but for the most part
is another lost building like Carlton
House or the Fishing
Temple.

The Prince of Wales riding along the Steine in Brighton
in 1804 with the Marine Pavilion in the background.